AS the exodus of Kosovo refugees
continues after the failed guerrilla offensive by the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA), substantial evidence is coming to light that German secret
diplomacy has been instrumental in helping the KLA since its inception
in February 1996.

The government of Helmut Kohl, the
[former] German chancellor, has officially supported the western line of
seeking to persuade Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslavian president, to
end his violent incursion into Kosovo [Emperors-clothes note: the writer
accepts the NATO line that putting down a secessionist movement is
somehow not the right of the Serbian government...] and enter
negotiations with the rebellious Albanian majority in the province.

But behind the scenes it is
understood that the German civil and military intelligence services have
been involved in training and equipping the rebels, with the aim of
cementing German influence in the Balkan area and tackling the refugee
problem. Germany is the principal target destination for refugees from
the Balkans and the influx has become a matter of serious political
controversy. Significantly, the so-called government of the Kosovo
Republic in exile is based in Germany, where approximately 400,000
Kosovars now live.

Arming the Kosovo militants who seek
independence from Serbia has led to a serious rift between the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German intelligence service, and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, according to
French diplomatic sources.

Pierre-Marie Gallois, a retired
French general and a specialist in geopolitics, believes that there was
a definite wish within some circles of German decision-makers to
destabilize the Serbs. He told The European: "The Kosovo crisis has
initiated a divorce between Germany and the United States. Washington
realized that pushing the Kosovars towards a military confrontation with
Milosevic, as the Germans wanted to do, would have a boomerang effect on
the Balkans.

"The United States put maximum
pressure on Germany to stop supporting the KLA behind the scenes, as did
the other European countries such as Britain and France."

Germany has traditionally been
anti-Serb and anti-Milosevic in particular: it was the first country to
recognize an independent Croatia before the Bosnian war. It is now
attempting to define a new role for itself in the Balkan region, which
it regards as vital to its interests.

The birth of the KLA in 1996
coincided with the appointment of Hansjörg Geiger as the new head of the
BND. One of his first operational decisions was to setup one of the
largest BND regional stations in Tirana, the Albanian capital. BND
agents co-operated closely with the leaders of the Shik, the Albanian
secret service.

The Shik was the successor to the
Sigurimi, the feared communist-era security service, many of whose
agents are still active. The BND men were in charge of selecting
recruits for the KLA command structure from the 500 000 Kosovars in
Albania.

At the same time the BND bureau in
Rome was asked to provide a political intelligence hack-up, including
working among refugees in Trieste and Bari, two of the principal entry
points into Italy for Albanian refugees. The German
Militärabschirmdienst (MAD), the military intelligence arm, and special
commandos such as the Kommandos Spezialkrafte (KSK) are also understood
to have been involved in training and the provision of communications
equipment. Reporters covering the Kosovo conflict, which was unleashed
when Milosevic sent police and special forces into the province earlier
this year to suppress the KLA, were surprised to find that some of the
KLA fighters wore BUNDESWEHR COMBAT JACKETS with identifiable Insignia,
even in front of television cameras.

The MAD also provided the Albanians
with phone-tapping and communication systems used by the Stasi, the
former East German communist secret police. Some of this material has
filtered through to Albanian-trained Kosovo guerillas. Weapons from
former East Germany have been smuggled into Albania by the German
services for use by the rebels, according to Dr Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a
Munich-based intelligence specialist.

The black-uniformed [like Nazi!] KSK
elite troops, previously active in Bosnia tracking down Serbian war
criminals, have been involved in training commandos in northern Albania
- still controlled by supporters of Sali Berisha, the former Albanian
president- according to French intelligence sources.

Tomislav Kersovic, a member of the
Belgrade-based institute for geopolitical studies, suggests that the
finances to subsidize the training were provided through an Albanian
foundation known as "The Fatherland's Call", with branches in
Düsseldorf, Bonn, Stockholm, Bern and other European capitals.

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